Tag: Writing

“My way’s not very sportsmanlike.”

Sara Mazariegos

Rob Reiner. I cannot believe this happened. I wanted the news to be untrue and wrong, but unfortunately it’s true. He directed so many movies we all love. Luis and I still need to see Spinal Tap II… It feels like only yesterday that Rob Reiner was on all the talk shows promoting it. Not only was he not that old yet, no one should die the way he and his wife did. It’s just awful.

In his honor, I wore my Princess Bride shirt that my sister gave me for my birthday this year. 😢 We watched When Harry Met Sally as an impromptu memorial holiday movie on Monday. We’ve been thinking about him and his family and all of his friends this week.

Hanukkah has been very tragic so far this year.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On the 14th, we went to the special, airplane hanger part of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. We saw the Enola Gay (we each saw it a long time ago, when it was crammed into the other facility) and several other cool old planes. We also saw the Discovery space shuttle and a docent was in a live video chat to answer questions, so Luis asked about the heat-resistant material and the emergency exit markings. It was very cool. We also did a motion simulator of flying, which scared me a little because of the claustrophobic conditions. I kind of liked firing the plane’s gun at the “bad guys” but I didn’t like whenever the simulator moved…

I don’t think I’m ever gonna go to space or be a pilot, guys. Sorry.

Holiday Get-Together. Last Friday evening, we went directly from my office to my best friend Kat’s holiday get-together. A few of our other friends were there, too, and it felt very much like a college hangout, in a good way. Kat made dinner and then we chilled and watched the newest Knives Out movie. I may have fallen asleep in a few places, but I’d been awake since 7 am! It’s always nice to spend time with friends. It’s harder to do so now that we’re older and we all have jobs and lives of our own.

I’ve been friends with Kat for twenty-four years. 🤯 Our friendship would be a young adult, if it was a person.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Do you ever start reading a book and it takes a bit for you to get into it and care about what’s happening? When I first started reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, I was a little lost. The main character is such a (heh) cold person, and he says a few highly judgmental, bigoted things within the first 20 or so pages. But then I started being interested in what was happening. He’s a spy, and he’s living this life that’s made up for his mission. He even goes to prison. It’s kind of intense. I’m interested in seeing the movie version after reading the book.

I started reading it because it’s cold outside, so the title matches. But it’s not actually about the cold at all. Well, it’s The Cold War. And it’s also a term for being a secret agent. You “come in from the cold” when you’re finished. I didn’t realize that I’d seen a related movie before, about George Smiley (a mentioned but so far unseen character in this book.) I saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy over a decade ago. But the name George Smiley jumped out at me. That’s pretty fun. It’s hard to forget a name like that.

I like spy and mystery novels when they’re well-done. I’m not all romance 24/7. Just most of the time. 😄

These are the things I can do without.

Sara Mazariegos

Christmas Eve Vacation. I requested the day off after Thanksgiving, and my boss ended up giving it to all of us anyway, so I asked him if I could use that extra vacation day for Christmas Eve. He officially approved it! So I will only have to work Monday and Tuesday that week, then have the rest of the week off. It’ll be good, because we celebrate Christmas with Luis’s family on Christmas Eve (Guatemalan tradition.) I may prefer Halloween, but I do like the time off for the holidays, and watching the specials and movies. And, hey, I wrote a Christmasy novel! I can’t say I hate it.

Snow already?! On Friday, it snowed in the DC area. The forecast said “flurries” but there were quite a few. They filled the air and hit me in the eyes repeatedly as I walked to the office in the morning. Luckily, the ground stayed walkable. I’m hoping it won’t get so bad that I can’t come to the office one of these days this winter, but we’ll see. Winters can become a bit intense here, especially in January and February. I think I’ll be able to work from home if it’s ever impassable. I wouldn’t have much other choice, and no clients would be visiting our office if it’s too nasty outside. I like watching snow, but I don’t like being in it. I hate the cold.

Merrily We Roll Along and Stephen Sondheim. We saw the filmed version of Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along last weekend, and it was so good. My favorite character was Charley, as played by Daniel Radcliffe. I’ve loved every Sondheim musical I’ve seen/heard so far. It reminded me quite a bit of Company, and the book was written by George Furth, the guy who also wrote the book of Company. (He was also in a few episodes of The Monkees, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan of his, too!) Richard Linklater is apparently going to make a movie version over the actual course of 20 years… It doesn’t sound as good. He’s such a stunt director. I recommend the recorded Broadway version. Hopefully it will be streaming soon.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2. This weekend we’re going to see the sequel to Five Nights At Freddy’s. I know I wrote last week about how there are too many sequels and some are okay, a lot are unnecessary. I think this one is necessary, because the first one was the setup and this one looks more like the game series. It’s getting pretty bad reviews from critics, but the audience score is great, because movies like this are made for the fans more than anything. They’re not trying to win any awards with this. But I hope it’s as fun and creepy as the games are. From the trailers, it even looks like my favorite character is in it (Mangle.) I hope I like it.


I also hope we can actually see it. Sometimes our movie theater moves out movies before we even get the chance to see them. Like they think, “Gotta make room for a bunch of old Christmas movies instead of playing new things. No one wants new things around the holidays.”

Writing/Reading update. It’s been nice to take time off from actively writing. I’m slowly working on an outline for the big rewrite of my Nerdfighter-inspired novel. I’m going in a different direction while still staying true to the general theme I had before. I like that there are many angles to play with. I’m also thinking of the characters more and more as their own people instead of facsimiles of people I know. It’s easier to create without real life dictating how things should be.

While I’m taking this nice break, I’m reading a few books. I finished The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts and now I’ve started The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I like reading more serious books on the Metro, and the sweeter stories at home. Luis and I are reading our way through The Good Part together. He seems to be enjoying it as well. I love that book so much. Just have to try not to let it make me cry in front of him.

Brenda and Eddie had had it already by the summer of ’75.

Sara Mazariegos

Thanksgiving mini recap. Wow. We basically had three Thanksgivings the past several days. We had regular Thanksgiving on Thursday (with the parade and dog show and everything) with Luis’s family, then we had Thanksgiving II on Friday at my parents’ house with even more turkey legs for Luis! Then we went to a friendsgiving dinner on Sunday. We got leftovers from all three dinners, so we’re going to be good on food for a while.

I got some ideas for future novels during all of this, so that’s fun. I’m taking a break from writing for the holidays now, so of course I’m plotting new things.

Zootopia 2 and the barrage of sequels and remakes. As we were going into the theater to see Zootopia 2, I commented that the row of “Coming Soon” posters on the wall were all sequels and remakes. It’s obviously not the first time I’ve noticed that so many movies are not original anymore, but it was interesting to see them in a row like that. I like certain sequels and remakes can be okay, but I do miss seeing the latest Disney movie and having it be the latest Disney movie and not a continuation of something. The second Zootopia was good, but do you know what was even better? The first Zootopia, when it was new and different and special.

I can’t believe there’s going to be a fifth Toy Story. Of course I’ll see it, though. Conan O’Brien is in it.

But I also plan to support the crap out of Hoppers. Hopefully our theater will show it for longer than a week. It didn’t give Elio a chance. We still haven’t seen Elio. 😦

Violence near my Metro stop. Harsh transition ahead. Last week, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, there was a shooting of National Guardspeople* near the Metro stop where I get off to go to work. It was during the afternoon, so thankfully I was already safely inside my office. But the commute home was scary because the station entrance was blocked off and there were police and TV cameras everywhere. While I was walking, I thought it was a bunch of police guarding the area, which would make sense I suppose, but then I realized it was a lot of media covering what had happened. They were blocking the corner where I usually cross, so I had to be on the other side of the street.

We live in scary times.

Writing/Editing update. My main update is that I finished editing the latest draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel! Now I have to wait and see what some new beta readers think.

In the meantime, I’m working on some new story ideas and making an outline. I’m planning to start writing this new story project in March (after my birthday) so I want to take the time to really think things through and have a good idea of what I’m doing before starting to type out a fresh new story draft. I’m excited to see where it takes me. I did something I don’t usually do with this one: I created Sims 4 versions of the romantic leads. It might sound silly, but it helps me think of fun ideas and imagine them as real people a little more.

I’ve also started a fun “book club” type thing with Luis. For a sort-of Christmas gift, I asked him to read The Good Part by Sophie Cousens and I’m rereading it as well, so we can discuss it. I love that book. I think he will, too. And then he’ll understand the kind of novels I’m going for when I write.

I still can’t believe it’s already December.

* It was one man and one woman, so “Guardsmen” feels wrong.

Is that the autumn leaf falling?

Sara Mazariegos

Thanksgiving again. It’s hard to believe it’s holiday time again. I was telling Luis that once August comes, everything starts to happen so quickly. I wonder if every year has felt like Halloween came and went before I knew it, or if it’s more like that this year because I’ve been working such long days and haven’t had as much time to catch my breath. My brain is still in New York on our anniversary in some ways. And remember when I had jury duty? That was a month ago. Unbelievable.

No Rest for the Wicked. Last weekend, we saw the second part of Wicked. My immediate response was it should have just been one movie with an intermission, like the musical. It’s also not really my thing… It’s such a cynical fan fiction. Much of it doesn’t make sense when you actually think about it. The best parts are the songs and the costumes. I still have the book, and I still haven’t read it. We’ll see if I ever do. I’m glad I haven’t seen it on stage.

We saw the new version of The Running Man last weekend as well. The two movies have similar themes, but I preferred The Running Man. It was much less annoying.

Even clips from It’s A Wonderful Life make me teary-eyed. The other day, Luis thought a TV show character sounded like George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life, so I went to YouTube to track down a clip of George yelling a lot and see if Luis was correct. The clip I sought was from the end of the movie, which is the most Christmasy part, so I felt silly watching it before Thanksgiving. I asked him if he meant “My mouth’s bleeding, Bert!” but he said it was something George says to the kids, so I had to check in case I’d forgotten a bit of dialogue*. Hard for me to imagine, given that I’ve seen it at least once a year my whole life.

Watching the clip—even though it’s not Christmas yet, I have the movie memorized, and it was only the last ten minutes—made me teary-eyed. It’s such a heart-warming movie. I love all the characters. As I read through my novel inspired by it, I find myself feeling similarly, which is a good sign.

Comparing my writing to others’. A big part of writing is reading, especially in the genre you write in. It’s a great way to learn what works and get inspired. A drawback I’m finding, though it’s a minor one, is that I compare my writing to the books I’m reading. I also compare my writing to the writing of authors I really like. But it’s not kind to myself, because authors like Sophie Cousens and Ashley Poston were agented and published a long time ago. I want to learn how to write better like them, but it’s unrealistic to think I’m going to magically be at their level without putting in the time and work.

That being said, I’m reading through my latest draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life novel, and I’m enjoying it even as I edit things. I’ve got a good story here, I just need to make it shine as much as I can before attempting to have agents read it.

I’m considering following the lead of Philip Van Doren Stern and gifting the finished draft to a few of my friends this Christmas. Not to critique, just to read and enjoy.

We’ll see if I get brave enough to do that.

* I’m pretty sure it was “There they are!” as said to Bert, that sounded a little bit like the character Luis was talking about (Bobby on King of the Hill.)

“It’s not your job to be as confused as Nigel.”

Sara Mazariegos

Frankenstein and Predator: Badlands. Last weekend, we saw two movies I really enjoyed. I’d been looking forward to seeing Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein ever since first hearing about it. It’s very faithful to the book! I wish it came out in more theaters; it deserves to be seen on a big screen. It’s beautiful and sad. And then we saw Predator: Badlands in theaters on Sunday and it was better than I expected. I like all of the characters in it, and the message of found family and working as a team instead of trying to do everything alone.

How is it almost Thanksgiving already? Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m still in a Halloween mood, but now I’ve got to think about spending time with people and eating too much. My job doesn’t give us the day off after Thanksgiving; I took it off so we’ll still be able to spend Thanksgiving with Luis’s family and then Thanksgiving II with my family. I’m looking forward to the days off, though they don’t really feel like vacation days, because we do so much socializing and cooking and stuff. I can’t just sit and read for hours. I don’t even really sleep in. Wah-wah. It’s nice, though. I just wish it was still October.

Any novel can be a comp novel if you try hard enough. A lot of people have a difficult time finding comparative titles for their novels when they’re in the query stage. I feel like I have a different problem; I find that every book I read could be a comp title. I notice little things the stories have in common with mine. They’re not usually big things, they’re usually subtle. But I think it’s because my novel is still being molded, so I’m imagining ways each book I read could shape my own story, and I shouldn’t do that because my story already has a satisfying shape. For example, I really enjoyed reading The Love of My Afterlife and finding little ways it fits with my story, but I think most people would think it’s a stretch for me to have it as a comp. There’s nothing supernatural in my novel. There’s no death or deadlines (heh.) But, then again, I’ve heard that comps don’t have to have all the same story elements as long as they have similar themes or worlds. So who knows? My story is also about self-discovery, found families, community, taking care of others, enemies to lovers… So that book could totally end up a comp of my story!

This blog is about my writing process, so here’s a glimpse at that thrilling part of it. 😅

Self-imposed deadlines. Speaking of my writing process, one thing I tend to do is assign myself these signposts to reach in order to keep myself on track. I aim to be finished editing my novel draft before Christmas so I can enjoy the holidays, and then I’m thinking of asking for another reader or two for their feedback. My big deadline for this story is the end of March so I can start sending out query letters.

But let’s see if it actually goes like that. I’m a writer, so I imagine and plan and have ideal situations in my head, but life rarely does what I want it to do.

Do you wanna know, know that it doesn’t hurt me?

Sara Mazariegos

I had an idea for a new blogging format. Let me know what you think.

New knee pillow (am I old?) I’ve noticed my lower back and knees are often sore when I wake up in the morning, particularly when I sleep in on the weekends, so I ordered myself a pillow to put between my knees or at least legs. So far, it’s helping me sleep in a better position. I read that sleeping on your side can cause spine twisting so it’s better to separate your legs to realign your spine. But it’s awkward if I want to move, because I have to move this rectangular pillow along with me every time, and every time I get out of bed I have to move it away. It may end up on the floor one of these days. I guess I’m too old to be naturally comfortable when I sleep now.

Days getting so dark by the time I’m on my way home. I love autumn, but I hate the daylight going away so early every day. I commute home after 5:30 so it’s always completely dark while I’m traveling. It lowers my motivation, which is especially bad because then I get home and I should be able to enjoy being home, but all I want to do is sleep. I’m looking forward to the longer days again in spring. At least there are more months of daylight in the year than months with early sunsets.

Holidays on random days during the week. Veterans Day was on Tuesday this year. It’s nice to have a break soon after a work day, but it makes it difficult to plan anything too exciting. Luis and I went to Subway and saw Bugonia before having some cake with his parents for his stepdad’s birthday. So I guess it wasn’t nothing, but being off on Monday as well would’ve been extra special. At least I only have to work three more days! A short week is always nice.

Book reading/Novel reading progress. I got some good reading time into this weekend. I would’ve gotten more if I hadn’t played The Sims 4 for two hours on Sunday, but I felt inspired to play after a long time, so it’s fine. I really like The Love of My Afterlife. It’s going along the way I figured it would, but it’s cute and funny. I’ve noticed that English romance novels are quirkier than American ones. I think English writers have a fondness for bizarre side characters that are not as common in American novels. Think about Bridget Jones’s friends. It builds out the world of the main character a little more. I like that and want to do that more in my own writing. Obviously without making my novel too silly, but the citizens of Bedford Falls are quirky characters, so I should have some funny people in my version, too.

I successfully completed my first read-through of my novel last weekend. Now I’m back into it, reading it and making notes of things to change. I started out thinking I’d only make change notes for this draft and then make a new draft copy for the actual rewrites, but I’ve started just rewriting and making the changes directly in this draft. Why wait, right? I have a lot of notes from beta readers in this draft already, so I’m using them as a guide and making my own changes as well. Hopefully, by editing and rewriting now instead of waiting until after another full reread, I’ll be finished editing this story before February.

The story is good, I just need to make it as close to great as I possibly can.

Games without frontiers, war without tears.

Sara Mazariegos

My Grandma passed away last week. She was ninety-three years old. I’m mostly grateful I was able to visit her last year, when we were unfortunately in town for my grandfather’s funeral (her husband.) We spent time watching hockey on TV and eating at nice restaurants, and we went to Point Defiance Zoo. She loved going to the zoo with family. I’m glad I was able to see her and she was doing well and having a nice time. I’m also grateful she didn’t become sick and spend months suffering. She didn’t have to be ailing for long. She was a sweet person and I’ll miss her.

I have a card from the Library of Congress that I was planning to send her. I’ll save it and give it to somebody else deserving. She’d like to know I’m still sending cards and letters. We used to write back and forth to each other. I always drew her a squirrel. 🥹

Luis should be very proud of himself for how well our (really his) escape room turned out last weekend. He came up with so many challenging puzzles and made all these cool videos to guide everyone along and congratulate them when they progressed. I hid the clues all over the house and got to be the helpful Haunted Mansion maid, turning lights on to guide them for clues and making things a little easier to find when needed. One thing that’s funny and a bit of an extra challenge is that we own a lot of stuff that could’ve corresponded to the puzzles, so we kept having to say things like, “No, sorry, it’s specific cards, not these random Pokemon cards. Oh, sorry, that’s just a Haunted Mansion painting on the wall because it’s decor. It’s not going to interact with your app.”

We had stuff that became animated by scanning it with an app. Oh yeah. 😎 It was fun! We’re already thinking up ideas for next year’s. It’s a great Halloween tradition.

I’m still reading three books at the moment: The Love of My Afterlife, House of Leaves, and The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts. Sometimes I wish I had extra time just so I could read, like how jury duty was supposed to be. I’m about halfway through all three of these books, but it’s not through lack of interest, I just don’t have enough time. I read the cat one on the train; it’s a murder mystery that’s not my usual genre, but it’s enjoyable. I love cats and ghosts. I read House of Leaves in the evening when I have a spare moment between activities… and I read The Love of My Afterlife before bed, unless I’m too tired or I need to squeeze in a Duolingo lesson before midnight.

Why do I practice Spanish before bed? No se.

I’m still 2 books behind schedule, because my goal is to read 20 books this year and I’ve read 14. I’ve gotta start reading when no one’s looking at work* or something.

Pacemaker was being all judgmental the other day because, to them, I haven’t worked on a novel project in over a year. But I haven’t been using Pacemaker to track my progress lately; holding myself accountable has been working fine. I set up a new project so Pacemaker wouldn’t delete my account, but it’s funny because it’s tracking my read-through of my novel at the moment, and I don’t read by word count. I’m reading through my story first before reading it again to make edit notes. I’m not sure how much I’ll be rewriting, but there are a bunch of things I think should be tweaked already. I’m tracking reading, then I’ll track the word count as it shifts with rewrites. I’m also feeling the common feelings of “is my writing any good?” since I know this story too well at this point.

A beta reader mentioned that my story is more like regular fiction with some romance, but I’ve noticed a lot of romance novels these days are like that. The Love of My Afterlife, for example, has a lot of personal growth stuff within. It’s not all kissy-kissy stuff. The two main characters don’t even know they like each other yet and I’m halfway through reading their story. I think novels where the relationship helps both characters find their happily-ever-after fit nicely in the romance genre. No bodice-ripping required.

That said, I’m going to amplify some of the romance in my revision… and take out some of the anxiety that both main characters inherited from me. Heh. Oops.

* This is a joke, because I’m the only person in my office. I could read while I’m here, except I’d feel guilty for doing so.

I’ve heard that it’s quite acceptable and surprisingly fun.

Sara Mazariegos

I’m picky about biopics. I think I’ve discussed them before. When the Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Mr. Rogers ones came out I was irritated because, nearly right before them, brilliant documentaries came out on the subjects. We saw the documentaries and loved them. We saw the RBG biopic and that was all right but not as good, and we didn’t bother with the Mr. Rogers one because the documentary was perfect. More recently, we saw the movie about Bob Dylan going electric and it was… all right. And now there’s a Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White and I just can’t bring myself to care.

We did see Blue Moon about Lorenz Hart last weekend. That was really good. The difference there, I think, is that it was made like a play and didn’t tell his story as much as it showed one major point in his life. He’s also not as well-known to people today as The freaking Boss. It was quiet and subtle, and required prior knowledge about musicals and Broadway in the 40s. It’s probably not doing too well. But I’m tired of seeing the origin story of anyone who’s ever been famous. Tired of even seeing them being made.

I’ve been thinking a lot about aging lately, especially when it comes to people I admire or people in my life who are getting older, and how it makes me feel old in ways that I otherwise might not. It’s strange, I guess; I obviously don’t feel twenty anymore or anything, but I especially feel the passage of time when I see famous people I liked growing up and how they’ve gotten older. Like Tina Fey being in her 50s. That feels insane to me. I’m very glad she’s still around and getting older, of course, because the opposite would be way worse. But honestly… I don’t think people talk about it enough: getting older is scary. It’s like some kind of magic trick that happens in slow motion that no one is controlling, and when you notice it’s happening it’s unsettling and doesn’t feel real.

I was thinking about all the countries I want to visit, and how we often don’t have the time off to go places. And it makes me feel sad and concerned because we shouldn’t wait until we’re 80 to travel. We should go while we’re young enough for walking to not be a problem and we don’t feel too tired to do all the things. I want to visit Amsterdam, Argentina, Berlin, New Zealand (even thinking about that flight makes me feel anxious,) Tokyo, Venice, and I’d love to go back to Barcelona and London since they’re both so great. Domestic vacations are fun, especially Disney, but there is a part of me, in the back of my brain, that thinks, “You should travel to those other countries while you still have a chance.”

I have wanderlust. Somebody explain to my and Luis’s employers that I want to travel so they will give us more days off. Wah.

I’m looking forward to Halloween on Friday and our escape room party on Saturday. It’s not in October, but Saturday is Dia de los Muertos, so it still counts as spooky time. 💀 We’ve gone all out for our escape room this year. It helps that we already own a lot of the stuff and it relies on a lot of lore from the attraction we love so much. I’m excited to see how it all plays out and see how our friends react. They loved our Riddler one last year.

There are understandably a great many shows that people like that are good and become popular. But oh my god. I love The Bear. All the episodes, even the ones that are a half-hour, are like little films. The crazy Christmas episode, “Fishes”… I’m still thinking about it. I was worried when we started watching the show that it was overhyped. That also happens often, but this show is very very good. Can’t recommend it enough, though it is frantic and sad, so you have to go into it knowing it’s not really a comedy. It’s a Drama with some humor in it.

That doesn’t mean I’m rushing out to see the Bruce Springsteen movie just because I like the guy who plays Carmy, though. I like Carmy specifically. I’m not watching everything he ever makes.

Last-Week-of-Not-Writing Writing update: the time off from working on a story has been a good thought cleanse. When I see on the calendar that I’m going to start reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life novel next week, I feel excited and ready to check it out. I have an organized plan, in theory. I’m going to start with a read-through, no note-taking allowed. Then I will go in and make notes of changes, make actual line edits and minor tweaks. THEN I will go in with the bigger rewriting and altering.

Hopefully, by the end of February, I’ll have a fresh new draft I can let people read. And maybe even send to agents.

Here’s hoping,

Somebody force me to care.

Sara Mazariegos

I kind of don’t miss “normal,” but the past few weeks have also been a lot.

Last weekend, we saw The Black Phone 2. It was fun and I’m glad they got the whole cast back instead of changing out the actors. I hope there’s not another sequel because it has a good ending and there’s not much more to do with the characters and premise. It’ll start to get stupid if they keep churning out sequels. It reminded me of Nightmare on Elm Street. That’s a perfect example of too many bad sequels, too.

As mentioned, we went to a Game Changer-themed party on Sunday. I was so nervous because it involved so much improv and it’s one thing to watch a show like that, but to actually participate in the games on the spot is kind of terrifying. Luis and I did a scene about a couple breaking up over a tandem bike. That was my proudest moment. We also got the group challenge to whisper everything, and I was really good at that. I wore the “Whispering” sticker the rest of the day. I was feeling very anxious on Sunday, so it was good to have a fun social event to distract my brain for a while.

I was anxious on Sunday because I had Jury Duty on Monday. I woke up at the same time as when I go to work and took the bus, getting to the courthouse nice and early so I could get through security and just relax with my books. I was led to believe I’d be sitting around reading for hours (that’s how it was in Virginia when I last had jury duty)… But Maryland does things differently. For one thing, there were about 800 people in the juror assembly room! They called out names for each jury pool early. I was in a pool that was around 200 people. It was a big case, and right away I knew I shouldn’t be selected. I had lunch and a brief break after the general questions, and then we came back in for more personal questioning with the judge and lawyers, with a white noise machine blocking out our discussion so the other potential jurors didn’t hear private information.

The case is apparently going to last eight business days. The judge listened to my reasoning and could see I was anxious about missing so much work at my 1-person office job, so she dismissed me. It helped— not on purpose!—that I completely blanked on the name of my company. All my brain wanted to say was my last job’s name, and I was panicking because I just couldn’t remember and I couldn’t force my brain to remember with everyone watching me and I felt so crazy. I thought she might say, “Eh, everyone wants to be at work” but she took pity on me and told me to go home. I tried not to act so relieved, but I bet she and the lawyers knew I was.

Who knew anxiety could get you out of jury duty? I wonder if it always would, though. I think it might depend on a few factors. I’m not planning to try to use it as an excuse in the future, because it was not fun to experience that.

Shifting over to something more pleasant, Luis and I are excitedly getting into Halloween preparations. We’re hosting another homemade escape room this year. The theme is Disney’s The Haunted Mansion (the attraction, not a movie.) I’ve mainly assisted with my ride knowledge and my decor collection; Luis has been coming up with all kinds of creative puzzles and he’s made a bunch of videos. He’s talented. We were originally planning a couple’s costume that was unrelated, but then I realized since we’re hosting a Haunted Mansion themed party and it’s my #1 favorite (hence the decor and my tattoo, etc) we should dress more thematically for that. He turned on a dime and bought a new costume. The party’s the weekend after this one. I’m grateful he had enough time to make the switch and I love that he was willing to do that for me. 💖

Of course I already had something to wear. I only needed an accessory, which I bought. I’ll be quite at home in our escape room at home.

As I said above, I didn’t have as much time to read during jury duty as I hoped. I actually surprised myself last night because I’m not even halfway through The Love of My Afterlife yet even though I read it a bunch. It’s hard for me to focus on a book when I’m distracted, and the courthouse people kept interrupting to make announcements and make us watch a video and tell us their judge stories. I really like the book, though. It’s a romance but I think it’s more general fiction with some romantic elements because it’s an adventure of self-discovery in a way. A lot of the “romance” books I gravitate to are like that. I also think I’ve discovered the true twist in the story. I hope I’m not wrong, because I love a good “aha, gotcha!” when the author sets one thing up and then veers in the opposite direction.

Finally, time for a writing update: I’m still taking a break from writing. After the initial “I have so many ideas though!!” few days, I’ve appreciated having time to relax and not think up plots or agonize about conflicts. It’s good to recharge my mental batteries. I do that for so many other things, why not do it for writing? I looked at the calendar the other day and realized it won’t be long until I’m reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life story. And I thought, “Oh, so I better enjoy this time away while it lasts.”

I can’t wait to dive back in, but waiting is better so it’s not too cold.

We all belong to everything.

Sara Mazariegos

The US is in the midst of a government shutdown. It feels like this happens way more frequently than it used to. It doesn’t only affect Washington DC either; Luis and I are going to New York this weekend/the beginning of next week and we wanted to visit Hamilton’s house, but it will be closed because it’s run by the National Park Service, which is funded by the federal government. We’re going to visit the grounds and see the outside of the house at least. It’ll still be nice to be there, but it’s annoying to be shut out for that reason.

I’m excited to go back to NYC for our anniversary. It’s the city I’ve been to the most, outside of cities I’ve lived in. We’re planning to go to Astoria, Queens and Harlem, and we’re staying in Hell’s Kitchen. We get to experience parts of the city I’ve never visited before. I’ve usually stuck to Manhattan. Technically Harlem is part of Manhattan, but I feel like… no it’s not. We’re going to see the Muppets in Astoria, at the Museum of the Moving Image. Apparently there are around 500 Muppets and sets, etc there. I may implode.

I’m enjoying the three main books I’m reading at the moment: Practical Magic, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice, and House of Leaves. My calendar reminded me that I’ve been reading House of Leaves for a year now. I’m halfway through it. Don’t judge me until you’ve read it. All three books are Halloween-appropriate. I still love Practical Magic. I’m reading it every weekday while I take the Metro home, so it’s slow-going, but it’s great. The Pumpkin Spice one is for young adults and it’s obvious. It seems like it’s for the younger end of young adults. I think she says “pumpkin spice latte” eighty-six bagillion times in it. So it can be somewhat grating, but it’s cute. I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can read another romance about a ghost.

While I’m at the court house for jury duty, I’m planning to read multiple books. We’ll see how much time I actually end up having to read. I remember reading for hours last time. I get kind of jumpy in situations like that, though, so it might be too ambitious to think I’ll be able to finish reading two books. What if—horror of horrors!—I do finish two books and I don’t have anything else to read. Bringing three books might be crazy.

I’m glad I’m not planning to write there. I’d be too distracted to think!

Speaking of writing, here’s my weekly writing update: I wrote out a plot outline and gave it to Luis to read. It was too confusing and messy, so he helped me come up with a rough skeleton to guide me in writing out my ideas. I wrote a new story summary with his skeleton guide and it makes way more sense now. I still have a lot to think about and develop, but I’m getting somewhere now.

I’m still on a break from writing. This is how I take a break from writing.

I keep forgetting we’re going to NYC in a few days and then I remember and get all excited again. ✨

Until next time,